• HP sources from Foxconn in China, a firm that is accused of engaging in sweatshop practices.

• Visit Go Green and encourage HP to increase its rate of sustainable improvement by supporting the Electronics TakeBack Coalition.

-- Profile Updated 10/13/2010

About Hewlett-Packard (HP)

Hewlett-Packard Company manufactures computers and software, and provides computer-related services. The company employed 150,000 people and recorded sales of $91.6 billion in 2006. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Campaigns

Electronics TakeBack Coalition

The Electronics TakeBack Coalition…

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The Electronics TakeBack Coalition, formerly the Computer TakeBack Campaign, aims to protect the health and well being of electronics users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements.

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Foxconn, an embattled electonics factory in Taiwan, faced more accusations of serious labor violations in a 90 page report issued by Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) and students and professor's at top Chinese universities. The report found that Foxconn, who manufactures electronics including cellphones and iPads for companies like Apple, HP, and Sony, hires interns instead of full-time workers to save money, doesn't pay legally madated insurance for its employees, and excessive work hours which are causing the factories employees to become extremely stressed out. Foxconn has had a long history of being accused of labor violations, yet the company denies any wrong doing.

Factory in China manufacturing for technology companies involved in string of suicides.…

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Factory in China manufacturing for technology companies involved in string of suicides. As of May 25, 2010, nine suicides have occurred in a factory this year, this factory produces for Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and other global companies. There were also two other failed suicide attempts at this factory. The factory is now under investigation and some workers’ rights group feel that the factory runs a military-style operation, putting stress on workers.

Three HP employees arrested after allegedly being paid in connection with Russian law enforcement agencies.…

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Three HP employees arrested after allegedly being paid in connection with Russian law enforcement agencies. The employees were supposedly able to influence contracts and negotiations and have been charged with fraud in Germany and Switzerland.

Hewlett-Packard’s key staff members testified before a congressional committee about the company’s data privacy scandal.…

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Hewlett-Packard’s key staff members testified before a congressional committee about the company’s data privacy scandal. The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations charged HP with spying on staff and journalists. HP obtained staff and journalists’ phone records, along with other data, in an attempt to discover which employee had leaked “confidential” reports to the press. The scandal brought a wave of resignations, including Patricia Dunn, HP chairman, and Ann Baskins, HP general counsel. HP’s key lawyer quit her post hours before the hearing.

September 28, 2006, Verizon Wireless filed a lawsuit against 20 individuals who allegedly obtained the telephone records for Hewlett-Packard. The lawsuit states that these individuals used “fraud, trickery, and deceit” to access call records from Verizon customer service centers. According to prosecutors, such practices violate laws concerning identity theft and unauthorized access to computer data.

Lawyers representing thousands of apartheid victims at an appeal hearing in New York will revive 2002 compensation claims against …

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Lawyers representing thousands of apartheid victims at an appeal hearing in New York will revive 2002 compensation claims against foreign multinationals they accuse of aiding and abetting apartheid violence. Implicated corporations include BP, Barclays, Hewlett-Packard, Credit Suisse, Coca-Cola, DaimlerChrysler, Ford and Shell Oil. The plaintiffs and some 29 civil society groups and individuals allege that companies that supported the apartheid state violated the Sullivan code and US's constructive engagement policy designed to fight discrimination. Violations involved such activities as providing the regime with armoured vehicles for patroling townships, and creating the pass book which non-whites were required to carry to authorize their passage in otherwise white areas.

In early 2001 a retired Hewlett-Packard employee sued the company claiming it reneged on its promise to provide its retired employ…

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In early 2001 a retired Hewlett-Packard employee sued the company claiming it reneged on its promise to provide its retired employees with lifetime discounts on HP products. The suit represents 3,800 Hewlett-Packard retirees who were transferred to the company's Agilent spin-off in 1999. The rebate plan provided 10% discounts to employees who had worked at the company 15 years or more and who were 55 years old when they retired. Hewlett-Packard responded by stating the Employee Purchase Rebate Program was not a qualified retirement plan and therefore is subject to change. HP eventually settled the lawsuit by agreeing to reinstate the rebate discount and create a $150,000 fund to reimburse discounts on already purchased products.

Hewlett-Packard has not managed to maintain its position in Greenpeace International’s “Guide to Greener Electronics.” The Washing…

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Hewlett-Packard has not managed to maintain its position in Greenpeace International’s “Guide to Greener Electronics.” The Washington, DC-based nonprofit releases a quarterly ranking of 14 of the leading consumer and mobile technology companies based on criteria relating to recycling, phase out of toxic chemicals and corporate responsibility issues. Although HP was once ranked toward the middle of the pack, they have failed to keep up with other computer companies and are now, according to Greenpeace, in “free fall.”

In “Toxic Chemicals in Computers Exposed,” Greenpeace International reported results of their study on hazardous substances in lap…

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In “Toxic Chemicals in Computers Exposed,” Greenpeace International reported results of their study on hazardous substances in laptop computers produced by Acer, Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Sony. In conjunction with the Eurofins Environmental A/S in Galten, Denmark, Greenpeace tested for chemicals such as lead, chromium, and bromine. HP and Apple laptops contained the highest levels of toxic contamination. HP laptops were the only models tested in which lead was identified. The study found PBDEs, which are a class of brominated fire retardants (BFRs), present in HP’s Pavilion dv4000 Series, though the company claimed to have removed the chemical from its product years ago. Long-term exposure to BFRs has been linked to abnormal brain development, interference with thyroid and estrogen hormone systems, as well as the nervous system.

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Basel Action Network’s (BAN) report entitled “The Digital Dump: Exporting Re-use and Abuse to Africa,” examines the current downside to the information technology growth in the industrialized world, focusing on the environmental ramifications in Lagos, Nigeria. The study demonstrates how Nigeria, representative of developing nations, has disproportionately carried the burden of toxic cyber waste. The formal and informal dumps have leached dangerous toxins, such as dioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals, into the air and groundwater. HP products were among those found “washed up” on the West African import market.

On the 2005 Computer Report Card, published jointly by the Computer TakeBack Campaign and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Hew…

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On the 2005 Computer Report Card, published jointly by the Computer TakeBack Campaign and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Hewlett-Packard(HP) received the high score of 35 for their policies regarding electronics take back, disposal procedures and the materials used in their computers.

Foxconn Electronics, a factory located in China that supplies $20.7 billion worth of products annually to Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Pac…

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Foxconn Electronics, a factory located in China that supplies $20.7 billion worth of products annually to Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Sony, and other top name brands, has come under criticism for alleged labor violations. According to British newspaper The Mail, labor rights violations at Foxconn Electronics include the following:

China Labor Bulletin research director Robin Munro stated, "They're not sharing proportionally in the benefits and profits in this huge globalization effort…. The only reason they can survive in these cities is because all they do is work." Foxconn states that there are huge discrepancies between the truth and allegations cited in the report.